Reading, watching, and listening recommendations from the staff of the American Writers Museum.
We can’t recommend these books, films, and albums highly enough! Check back every month for more entertainment recommendations, from classics that we revisit over and over to new favorites. If you’re looking for your next book, you came to the right place.
Many of our November staff picks are also available on Bookshop.org, which benefits independent bookstores. We also strongly encourage you to support your local bookstore by visiting them in person or ordering online through them directly.
Let us know what you’ve been into recently in the comments!
Carson the Magnificent by Bill Zehme with Mike Thomas
From the publisher: “A much-anticipated biography—twenty years in the making—of the entertainer who redefined late-night television and reshaped American culture…Shortly after Johnny Carson’s death in 2005 and urged on by many of those closest to Carson, Bill Zehme signed a contract to do an expansive biography. He toiled on the book for nearly a decade before a cancer diagnosis and ongoing treatments halted his progress…Completed with help from journalist and Zehme’s former research assistant Mike Thomas [after Zehme’s death in 2023], Carson the Magnificent offers just that: an honest assessment of who Johnny Carson really was.”
We’re thrilled to host co-author Mike Thomas at the AWM on November 19 with Rick Kogan of the Chicago Tribune to discuss the book, Carson’s legacy, and the special nature of co-writing this biography. Get tickets to attend in person here, or sign up for the livestream link here.
—Nate, Manager, Content & Exhibits
Fools Crow by James Welch
From the publisher: “In the Two Medicine Territory of Montana, the Lone Eaters, a small band of Blackfeet Indians, are living their immemorial life. The men hunt and mount the occasional horse-taking raid or war party against the enemy Crow. The women tan the hides, sew the beadwork, and raise the children. But the year is 1870, and the whites are moving into their land. Fools Crow, a young warrior and medicine man, has seen the future and knows that the newcomers will punish resistance with swift retribution. First published to broad acclaim in 1986, Fools Crow is James Welch’s stunningly evocative portrait of his people’s bygone way of life.”
For the next episode of our podcast Nation of Writers, we will be focusing on the life and legacy of James Welch with our guests author Stephen Graham Jones (see below) and scholar Kathryn W. Shanley (see below). This episode will be released later this month! You can find all podcasts and subscribe to them here.
—Nate, Manager, Content & Exhibits
Jumanji; screenplay by Jonathan Hensleigh, Greg Taylor & Jim Strain; based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg
From the distributor: “Two kids discover an old board game and when they start playing it they are greeted by a man who has spent years trapped inside the game since playing it at age 12. His only hope for freedom involves finishing the dangerous game.”
Join us Sunday, November 10 for a screening of the original Jumanji starring Robin Williams! Before or after the screening, you can also explore all our exhibits, including special exhibit Level Up: Writers & Gamers. The film begins at 3:00 pm CT. Get your tickets today!
—Nate, Manager, Content & Exhibits
Loch Ness Uncovered: Media, Misinformation, and the Greatest Monster Hoax of All Time by Rebecca Siegel
From the publisher: “An extensively researched, myth-busting account of the world’s most famous monster hoax—the Loch Ness Monster—and a cautionary tale on the dangers of misinformation… Meticulously researched through primary sources and in-depth interviews with key figures, Loch Ness Uncovered is the fascinating true story of the conspiracy that sparked intrigue worldwide. Complete with archival images, an engaging narrative, and a guide to media literacy, here is a nonfiction book that will transport young readers to the thrilling world of monster mania.”
In our current moment when misinformation is widespread, Siegel uses the tale of the Loch Ness Monster to illustrate how fake news becomes so ingrained it is taken as fact—and what you can do to combat it. Siegel was at the 2024 American Writers Festival discussing her book, and you can listen to this program on this recent episode of the AWM Author Talks podcast.
—Nate, Manager, Content & Exhibits
Lover, Beloved: Songs from an Evening with Carson McCullers by Suzanne Vega
To say that Suzanne Vega is a fan of writer Carson McCullers would be a gigantic understatement. The songs on the album were based on the one-woman play about Carson McCullers that Vega wrote and performed in 2011. The songs bring McCullers’s writing into a new sphere and do so brilliantly. The language that Vega uses draws so much inspiration from McCullers that the two seem to blend together perfectly. The track “We of Me” is based on the book, The Member of the Wedding (see below), and it is fun to find all the connections between the songs and Carson McCullers’s work.
—Christopher, Director of Operations
Mapping Indigenous Presence: North Scandinavian and North American Perspectives edited by Kathryn W. Shanley and Bjørg Evjen
From the publisher: “A set of comparative Indigenous studies essays with contemporary perspectives, attesting to the importance of the roles Indigenous people have played as overseers of their own lands and resources, as creators of their own cultural richness, and as political entities capable of governing themselves. This interdisciplinary collection explores the Indigenous experience of Sámi peoples of Norway and Native Americans of Montana in their respective contexts…The authors attempt to increase understanding of how these two sets of Indigenous peoples share important ontological roots and postcolonial legacies, and how research may be used for their own self-determination and future directions.”
For the next episode of our podcast Nation of Writers, we will be focusing on the life and legacy of James Welch (see above) with our guests author Stephen Graham Jones (see below) and Shanley. This episode will be released later this month! You can find all podcasts and subscribe to them here.
—Nate, Manager, Content & Exhibits
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
From the publisher: “From the master of Southern Gothic, Carson McCullers’s coming-of-age story like no other about a young girl’s fascination with her brother’s wedding. Twelve-year-old Frankie is utterly, hopelessly bored with life until she hears about her older brother’s wedding. Bolstered by lively conversations with her family maid, Berenice, and her six-year-old cousin—not to mention her own unbridled imagination—Frankie takes on an overly active role in the wedding, hoping even to go, uninvited, on the honeymoon, so deep is her desire to be a member of something larger, more accepting than herself.”
—Christopher, Director of Operations
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
From the publisher: “A novel that is equal parts psychological horror and cutting social commentary on identity politics and the American Indian experience. Fans of Jordan Peele and Tommy Orange will love this story as it follows the lives of four American Indian men and their families, all haunted by a disturbing, deadly event that took place in their youth. Years later, they find themselves tracked by an entity bent on revenge, totally helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.”
For the next episode of our podcast Nation of Writers, we will be focusing on the life and legacy of James Welch (see above) with our guests scholar Kathryn W. Shanley (see above) and Jones. This episode will be released later this month! You can find all podcasts and subscribe to them here.
—Nate, Manager, Content & Exhibits
Only Murders in the Building, Season 4 created by Steve Martin and John Hoffman
From Rotten Tomatoes: “Three strangers share an obsession with true crime and suddenly find themselves wrapped up in one. When a grisly death occurs inside their exclusive Upper West Side apartment building, the trio suspects murder and employs their precise knowledge of true crime to investigate the truth. Perhaps even more explosive are the lies they tell one another. Soon, the endangered trio comes to realize a killer might be living among them as they race to decipher the mounting clues before it’s too late.”
—Matt, Community Engagement Manager
Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering by Malcolm Gladwell
From the publisher: “In this provocative new work, Malcolm Gladwell returns for the first time in twenty-five years to the subject of social epidemics and tipping points, this time with the aim of explaining the dark side of contagious phenomena. Through a series of riveting stories, Gladwell traces the rise of a new and troubling form of social engineering…Revenge of the Tipping Point is Gladwell’s most personal book yet. With his characteristic mix of storytelling and social science, he offers a guide to making sense of the contagions of modern world. It’s time we took tipping points seriously.”
—Carol, Institutional Giving Manager
Rope: A Play by Patrick Hamilton
From the publisher: “For the mere sake of adventure, danger, and the ‘fun of the thing,’ Wyndham Brandon persuades his weak minded friend, Charles Granillo, to assist him in the murder of a fellow undergraduate, a perfectly harmless man named Ronald Raglan. They place the body in a wooden chest, and to add spice to their handiwork, invite a few acquaintances, including the dead youth’s father, to a party, the chest with its gruesome contents serving as a supper table. The horror and tension are worked up gradually; thunder grows outside, the guests leave, and we see the reactions of the two murderers, watched closely by the suspecting lame poet, Rupert Cadell. Finally they break down under the strain and confess their guilt.”
—Matt, Community Engagement Manager
Shoot Like a Girl: One Woman’s Dramatic Fight in Afghanistan and on the Home Front by Mary Jennings Hegar
From the publisher: “After being commissioned into the U.S. Air Force, MJ Hegar was selected for pilot training by the Air National Guard, finished at the top of her class, then served three tours in Afghanistan, flying combat search-and-rescue missions…But it was on American soil that Hegar would embark on her greatest challenge—to eliminate the military’s Ground Combat Exclusion Policy, which kept female armed service members from officially serving in combat roles despite their long-standing record of doing so with honor. In Shoot Like a Girl, MJ takes the reader on a dramatic journey through her military career: an inspiring, humorous, and thrilling true story of a brave, high-spirited, and unforgettable woman who has spent much of her life ready to sacrifice everything for her country, her fellow man, and her sense of justice.”
—Annie, Education Associate
The Wild Robot screenplay by Chris Sanders, based on the book by Peter Brown
From Rotten Tomatoes: “The epic adventure follows the journey of a robot—ROZZUM unit 7134, ‘Roz’ for short—that is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must learn to adapt to the harsh surroundings, gradually building relationships with the animals on the island and becoming the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling.”
—Matt, Community Engagement Manager
When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry edited by Joy Harjo with LeAnne Howe, Jennifer Elise Foerster, and Contributing Editors
From the publisher: “This landmark anthology celebrates the indigenous peoples of North America, the first poets of this country, whose literary traditions stretch back centuries…the book contains powerful introductions from contributing editors who represent the five geographically organized sections. Each section begins with a poem from traditional oral literatures and closes with emerging poets…When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through offers the extraordinary sweep of Native literature, without which no study of American poetry is complete.”
In November of 2020, we had the honor of hosting an online program with three poets featured in the anthology: Layli Long Soldier, Mark Turcotte, and Tanaya Winder. The three poets discussed the anthology and read their work, which you can watch on YouTube here or listen to on the AWM Author Talks podcast here.
—Nate, Manager, Content & Exhibits
Visit our Reading Recommendations page for more book lists.